Come From Away

In an attempt to stop hurricanes and other natural disasters, please dress your child up as a pirate this Halloween!!

For more information visit www.venganza.org (click the graph). Here is an excerpt from their site:

You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

. . . and their apple tree.

Portobello and I went over to say hello to the neighbours a few days ago and Lanea showed him their apple tree (and the apples that had fallen on the ground). I curse you Lanea! (hands in air, fists shaking).

Convincing him to go home was troublesome, but not overly difficult. I just showed him some apples and convinced him that following me home would be better than staying there to gorge on apples. He spent the next two days walking around the house crying to go outside. . .

Today, I let him out for a few minutes to eat some grass and he was running around in the back yard happily. When I told him it was time to go inside, he actually followed me very well and went right up to the door, but then he remembered the apple tree. It was as if he thought, “Oh ya! I did not eat ten apples yet!” He was off in a flash and under their tree in seconds.

Getting home was a bit more difficult this time, but the same drill worked. I pick up some of the more “choice” apples, show them to him, and then once he is following me, run home. He’s really cute running behind me.

I suppose we have two more days of crying, snorting and whining to look forward to now.

(we actually had quite a dry day today)

. . . I hope.

When I was out feeding the horses this morning (in the rain – grumble). I noticed a distinkt odour. Skunk!

I thought it was Oopsie because she had been standing way far away from Hill and Sophie and I only noticed the smell when she walked over. After some cautious sniffing, it became clear that it was not Oopsie. I guess she had been standing way off because she was not pleased with Sophie’s latest perfume and not because the other two had told her to go away.

I came in and told K that I thought that Sophie had been skunked, but that I couldn’t figure out where exactly. Actually, I did not put too much effort into it. Sophie is a very curious and crazy little pony, so there is no doubt that she would have happily run up the a skunk to see what it was.

Later when K was feeding the girls dinner, she discovered that Sophie had in fact been sprayed right between the eyes. This made putting her halter on and off a bit yucky. Thankfully, this is a dinner time necessity and that is K’s shift!

At least the rain will help. . .

The weather looks foreboding. Rain, rain, rain, rain, snow and snow! I think I’ll just go to bed now for a week. Wake me up if the sun comes out.

Most years, I am really not looking forward to winter and this year is no different.

Stupid winter:

Frozen water in barn
Frozen hands
Frozen feet – Chilblains
Cold, draughty, old, crappy, house
Weather sealing windows (and front door)
Lugging wood 100 times a day to keep the fire roaring
Snow, shovelling, freezing rain
Standing out in the elements waiting for the school bus with the kids
Freezing cold car, scraping car
Poor driving conditions
(feel free to add to the list)

I decided today that all vegetable consumtion from this day forward will be required to be eaten in “fritter format.” Today’s dinner of vegetable fritters (carrots and squash) was a big success. Rounded out with delicious chicken strips with plum sauce for extra healthiness.

VEGETABLE FRITTERS

1 lg. carrot
1 med. sized zucchini
1 med. sized yellow straight neck squash (about 10 oz.)
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 lg. egg
1/2 c. salad oil

About 30 minutes before serving. With coarse shredder, shred carrot, zucchini and squash. Pat vegetables very dry with paper towels. In medium bowl, mix shredded vegetables with remaining ingredients except salad oil.
In 10“ skillet over medium heat in hot salad oil, gently drop 1/8th of vegetable mixture at a time (1/4 cup) flattening slightly to about a 3” round. Cook 3 fritters at a time, 5 minutes until golden brown, on both sides, turning fritters once. With pancake turner, remove fritters to paper towels to drain. Keep warm on platter while cooking remaining fritters. Yield: 8 fritters.

We were out of zucchini, so I left it out. Also we did not have Parmesan cheese and I substituted cheddar, then tripled the recipe. It was clearly not right, so I added a bit more flour and 3 more eggs.

Dinner was, of course, a huge success. Tomorrow we are again expecting favourable reactions to dinner… I mean who does not like fritters?! Here are some more dinner ideas:

VEGETABLE FRITTERS-2

1 c. diced raw potatoes
3/4 c. grated carrot
1/2 c. onion
1/4 c. green pepper
1 clove garlic or 1/8 tsp. garlic powder

BATTER:

3/4 c. flour
1/4 c. milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Mix raw vegetable with batter. Fry in oil (about tablespoon size scoops).

LITTLE CARROTS FRITTERS

3 med. carrots, finely shredded (1 c.)
1 med. potato, finely shredded (1 c.)
1 sm. onion, finely chopped (1/4 c.)
2 beaten eggs
2 tbsp. flour
1 tbsp. snipped parsley
Dash salt
1/4 c. cooking oil

In mixing bowl combine carrots, potatoes and onion. Add eggs, flour, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well. In large skillet heat cooking oil. Drop batter by tablespoon into hot oil; spread each to a 3 inch circle. Cook until brown. Drain on paper towels. Transfer to platter, keep warm. Makes 18 fritters. Great with eggs.

Corn Fritters

2 cans whole kernel corn, drained
2 eggs, separated
2-3 Tablespoons flour
salt and pepper

Preheat large pan on medium-high heat (non-stick is best) and add a bit of oil and butter. Meanwhile, put corn and egg yolks into a bowl. Mix. Add flour, salt and pepper. Beat egg whites until stiff. Gently fold them into corn. At this point your pan should be hot. Gently put big spoonfuls of the corn mixture into your pan. Lower heat at bit and let cook for 3-5 minutes, until golden. Make sure they do not get brown. Turn and cook on the other side until golden. Serve with butter, salt and pepper to taste. OINK!

I like this last recipe the best. Not because of the taste (although it is tasty). I just love that the person ends the recipe with “OINK!” I can just imagine this person sitting down to his fritters after 20 years of eating his veggies a-la-fritter, in front of the TV, watching Jeopardy!. . .

It’s pouring raining, so I guess that means no internet…

It actually came back quite quickly, but was completely annoying while it was out.

Halloween is fast approaching much to the delight of some in the household. Others (the adults) are getting organised. We are chasing costumes and have already purchased the candy. I am still working on the wood pile. There is currently a big pile to split which is the worst part of the job. I’ll have to clear what is in front of the gate to the paddock soon as we will be needing some hay in the next couple of days. I hope we get some good weather. I’d rather be sitting in the rocker on the porch. I’m not sure what the dispute is about, but clearly these are some grumpy horses. They were very upset a few days ago because it was windy.

We had a birthday party today for “L” who turns 7 tomorrow. He invited his class of twelve kids and ten of them showed up. We planned to have the kids outside and play some games plus have pony rides. It rained. “L” was not feeling well and spent some time lying down on the couch. At one point, it was so loud that my head started to explode (for reasons unknown, it just stopped). Even 2 hours later, I still feel like my head is buzzing. The rain did actually stop long enough for the kids to get a little walk around on Sophie so everyone was happy. In the end, the kids had fun, K and I survived and we still like one another.

(The pictures in this blog entry were all taken by K)

Here are a few pictures of Isabella and the peachicks that she hatched.

They still follow her around and listen to her mommy chicken clucks, but I have noticed lately that they also like to be with the order pea chicks. Perhaps they are starting to find their “mum” a bit strange. They are almost her size already and it is funny when they try to cuddle up under her to stay warm at night.

(vroom!)

. . . for some decent food.

We went into town today to run some errands and unfortunately tried a new restaurant. The waitress was very nice and the place looked nice, but the food was crummy. I ordered “our version” of turkey pot pie. It was like eating some very tasteless stuffing that was lacking in every sort of spice, except for too much salt. I could tell that K’s meal was not all that enticing either (which she later confirmed outside the restaurant).

Halfway through the meal, the waitress did the normal check up on her customers and asked, “Is everything OK?” K said that hers was fine and I made a non-committal sort of it’s OK comment. The waitress looked at me and asked me specifically if I liked “Our Version of turkey pot pie.”

What can I say? My mother brought me up right. It would not be right to lie, so I told her that I did not like it (for the people who know me: YES, I was POLITE about it!)

She offered to bring me something else, but I know how it goes when you return items at restaurants and I was not in the mood for anything with lots of “extra sauce”. The half of “little D’s” burger that I got to eat was actually really good and I left full.

For food so far, we have managed to find a few restaurants that we like:
(in no particular order)

1. The Formosa Tea House
2. Cedars Eatery (really good fresh food – grumpy waitresses)
3. Royal Tandoor – An Indian Food buffet (It is the only one on the Island)
4. East Side Mario’s (for some reason we have always liked this place)
5. The Gahan House – The Island’s only micro-brewery (food was OK, but who cares. . .)
6. The Merchant Man Pub – Good food, but not kid friendly
7. Brehault’s – Cute, little, family run – diner fare

I’m making some changes to the blog and moving away from Blogger. I’ve imported the old site. If anything looks amiss, please let me know.

Over the next few days, I’ll be playing with the site a bit and trying out different features and templates. If anyone cares to see some of the available templates, there are a whole bunch of prefab templates over on http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/.

You can now register for an account. . . I’m not sure how this matters yet.